Chock Full o' Thanks.

 I love the simplicity of Thanksgiving. Food. Family. Friends. Blessings. That's it. No expectations of gifts or a large fuss- just relishing in all that you have around you. 

I love welcoming people into our home to honor and bless them with a meal. To let them be served for all of the ways that they serve and honor us.  To show them just how chock full o' thanks we really are for their presence in our lives.

The "kids" table- New friends joined us this year. DeMorney, my
brother's girlfriend, and Will, Adam's friend and student teacher.

Adam was so excited about carving the turkey, but it had other plans. It was so tender it just pulled a part. Yum.

The good ole' boys. 

Brothers. Enough said.

I love this picture. The Basset boys and the Mama who loves them behind the camera. Glad to catch this moment.

MC loves her uncles. They just might be her favorites.

It wouldn't be a Basset-Porter-Tigert function without the wine. 

These salt and pepper shakers and scoops were brought from South Africa
as wedding gifts for us almost 5 years ago.

Reading Papa a night-night story.

A very Happy Thanksgiving 2013- chock full o' love and a few nuts. Just how I like it.

Snovember.

With all of the other made up prefixes being thrown around with November {i.e. No-Shave November, Movember, etc...} why not throw in a Snovember?

Mother Nature decided to define that very word for us this weekend. 

It started with some of the infamous Okie sleet/freezing rain/drizzle junk on Friday, melted away on Saturday, and then right after I was dressed for church {odds}, it began to ice/snow mix on Sunday morning. 

And, even though it wasn't in the cards for us to have a full blown snow day {that carried into an extra day or two of Thanksgiving vacation}, we still had enough to play in for a bit and then a good reason to get back in our pj's and be lazy the rest of the day. 

A true day of rest and play as the world was quieted with snow. Some of the first that I can remember falling in November.

Happy Snovember! 

Twelve Years.

Twelve years have come and gone - some days it seems like a lifetime ago, while others it seems like merely a breath has passed.

November 7 marks an anniversary. A day that my family's world changed forever. The day my daddy breathed his last breaths with us by his side in that hospital room. The day my family of four changed to a family of three. A day that none of us will forget.

This is not meant to be a share to welcome pity, to make the world feel sorry for us. We were lucky to have my father for as long as we did- and thankful his journey into sickness and pain ended and he could leave it behind for a heavenly place where he would be made whole once again.

He packed in a lifetime of memories in his 48 years here on earth. Some good, some bad -up and down like the roller coasters he loved so much.

This time of year always brings about those good memories of the things I loved most about him- his laugh, his smile that shown through his baby blues, they way he would charcoal on the back porch and finish a bag of potato chips, his dreams to make everything perfect and every holiday special.

His love for football and baseball, his love for being outdoors, and of course, his love for us.

The three of us that are left from our original four are still marked by his presence- yet we are continuing to find a way to be independent and move on from the yesterday.

My mom is as beautiful as ever, inside and out.  Years have come and gone, and with that many more bumps in the road and fresh battle scars, yet her spirit is still there. She's stronger than she thinks she is and her love runs too deep for words. 

She has rekindled and found hope and comfort in another, the Papa to our little MC. He has offered her a kind of support that my brother and I can't, and he loves us like his own. We are thankful.

My brother has changed from the middle school boy to the hard working man out in the real world. He could sell Eskimo ice as they say. He has a quick wit and humor, along with the stride that both my grandfather and dad had in his step. He's compassionate and sensitive. Strong and capable.

Twelve years may have come and gone- but we are ever aware of the love he continues to give. Happy for our new lives and thankful for the ones with whom we share it.

Healing is not about forgetting. It is about adapting to the changes, transforming the pain into something meaningful, and reconciling with that which seems impossible to forget.

Halloweening.

Halloweening isn't really a word, but you probably already knew that. I just thought it was the only way to describe the week leading up to the costume and sugar-overloaded holiday.

 Holidays were always big time in my house growing up and I've carried it with me and allowed it to spread as I've gotten older. This particular one was never about the dark and evil to us- in fact, I was actually surprised when I got older in school and had friends that thought it was the devil's holiday. I had been brought up to believe that it was in connection to All Soul's day and that costuming was in fact a protection against all of the evil things. Either way- we saw no harm in playing dress up, hanging out with neighbors while getting some sweet treats out of the deal. In fact, my mother in law shared this post on Halloween and I feel it sums up my feelings about it exactly.


Anyway, back to Halloweening. This year was pretty awesome. I took the girls to another punkin' patch where they helped me pick out mine for carving and they each scored some mini ones to keep too.

She was smelling this one- I loved how she would always pick the imperfect as her perfect.
We brought home one from another patch that had no stem because she loved it so much.

Too much sweetness.

Then, after finding the right punkins' we of course had to decorate them by carving, painting, or sticking on stickers.

Daddy's pumpkin

MC's pumpkin

Mommy's pumpkin- didn't help the Cards out much unfortunately.

And then of course came the costumes and the sugar overload. We attempted the Storybook Forest one night before there was supposed to be some pretty horrible weather {and since daddy was going to have rehearsal on the actual evening of Halloween}. However, everyone else in Edmond decided to do the same, so needless to say, we didn't make it. But, we did get the opportunity to get in costume and see Nana, so I guess it worked out in its own way.

For the finale of Halloweening, we had a girls' evening. Ouma and Nana came over for quesadillas and trick or treating. This year was pretty awesome because the bug really got into it. My mom and I would tell her to say Trick or Treat and Thank you and she caught on quick. We'd finish one house and she would say "I want to go to 'nother house."

I think this is sweeter than all of the candy we now have in our house.

Happy Halloweening!